What is this generation called?

Wikipedia tells me that this generation of newborns is primarily known as Generation Z.

My generation, Generation Y, is probably the biggest generation on this website, considering that it “started in the mid-1970s and lasted until about 2000.”

The most recent generation is Generation Z, which is from mid-90s to now. It sometimes overlaps with Gen Y (aka Millennials, or Net Generation, or Next Generation), which is mid-70s through mid-90s, but some put it as late as 2000. And, confusingly, Gen Z is also sometimes referred to as Net Generation (though usually, that term is more about saying “people who grew up with computers” than other generational qualifiers). Generation Me is a derogatory term, and should probably not be used unless the intent is offense. And, I personally think the author who coined the term didn’t exactly take into account all the possible factors when she decided that “Gen Me” was more narcissistic. Also, Gen Me includes late Gen Xers as well as Gen Yers.

I have often heard them referred to as “Generation Me”, “The iGeneration”, “Millennials” (no, Gen Y is pre-millenial!), and “Poor bastards” for being the first generation that will be worse off than their parents.

@peytonx3x Get off my lawn!
Seriously though, I am not so sure about that. There are a lot of us Gen X-ers and quite a few Baby Boomers here, so I think we’d need a poll for that.

@Aethelflaed Net Generation? Maybe insofar as they never knew of a world without Facebook, but I grew up with computers nearly my entire life. I think there is more to it than that. They seem to be the first generation that cannot even fathom a world that is not utterly interconnected in realtime and are so reliant on technology that they cannot function without it. As opposed to us older folks who grumble about power outages and just pick up a book. My world doesn’t end if my phone battery dies.

@jerv Wikipedia both suggested Net Gen and that Gen Y and Millennials are interchangable.

Thirty-two years have passed since the Great War. The Shivans vanished half a lifetime ago, and now we live in the mausoleum of history. We inherit the legacy of ghosts who haunt these ruins. The elders call us the lost generation.

I remember stories of a glorious civilization, of cities with spires that reached the sun, of a blue planet with vast seas, of people with myths of humanity everlasting, of children who saw in the embers of dying stars the destiny of their race, and they hurled themselves into the void of space with no fear. They say our people have no present, only a past filled with horror and a future they can only dream of.

The “Me” generation are those that came of age in the 70s, the tail end of the Baby Boomers.

My children were part of the me generation. This generation is the internet generation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z With the economy, unrest throughout the middle east, etc. what do you think would be the name of the upcoming generation?

There is still ß, Ä, Ö, Ü, €, §

the txt jeneration

@erichw1504 Love your answer. I didn’t think of that. Then again, I’m from a generation that doesn’t txt ; )

When I think of current teens and tweens, and most things that I see and hear from them, it makes me think they are the “Fuckyougimmegimme Generation”. Please note, I know not every teen and tween is like that.

I guess I am out of touch. My family refers to the baby boomers, the hippie/drug generation, and then the “young people today”, usually followed by derogatory remarks about their lack of homemaking skills, their inability to spell correctly, and how they are missing out on life in general by keeping their noses glued to their cell phones, ipods, ipads, and i-everything. I think they should be called the i-generation.

It depends on where you look and the dates/names seem to vary. The ones listed below were the terms I was familiar with:

2000/2001-Present – New Silent Generation or Generation Z (today’s generation)
1980–2000 – Millennials or Generation Y
1965–1979 – Generation X (my generation)
1946–1964 – Baby Boom
1925–1945 – Silent Generation
1900–1924 – G.I. Generation

Here are some odd names of which some of I’m not familiar with:

1983–2001 – New Boomers
1965–1982 – Generation X
1946–1964 – Baby Boomers
1929–1945 – Lucky Few
1909–1928 – Good Warriors
1890–1908 – Hard Timers
1871–1889 – New Worlders

It’s amazing to me how negative some of us can be, even in the midst of all the wealth that surrounds us, and even when the story of how we got this way is so easy to follow and duplicate.

Children growing up during the Depression, for example, could probably have been forgiven for having a negative outlook on life: their parents had little, they had nothing, and then they “graduated” into World War II. And yet… they did okay, those who survived. (I don’t recommend a World War as the path to riches.)

The United States, to name one example, became awash in objective measures of wealth: home ownership; automobile and large appliance ownership; quantity and quality of surrounding infrastructure (good roads and good water, for example, and electricity that is “always on”).

Throughout the 1980s, starting with a recession at the start of the Reagan administration, we heard how the Japanese were going to eat our lunch, as their financial statistics started to overtake ours and Japanese owners purchased some “crown jewel” real estate in the US. But we soon enough got our act together again, the Japanese financial markets hit their own rough patch, and we regained our sense of optimism. That lasted through the 90s.

Now we’re temporarily at another bad place, economically, and for some observers, the sky is falling again.

I would love to be an American in the current generation. I think life in the USA will continue to be (or will “once again be”, for those who are in hard times now) unimaginably rosy, especially as compared with most of the rest of the world, and all of the past human history.

I have one-word descriptions of anyone from any generation who sees only gloom and doom ahead: whiners or losers.

@CWOTUS Whew! Whiners or Losers? Just some who may be going through hard times! I know college kids who graduated, owe a fortune and can’t get a job. We older folks have been there, done that and pulled through. So, from experience we don’t see gloom and doom ahead. But, they haven’t experienced pulling through yet..

I will steal this commerical advertisement from Coca-Cola…...........

How about, THE NOW GENERATION?

After all, the people in the 70s are actually called the people in their 50s because of good health and great medicens.

@CWOTUS If it weren’t for a few trillion in debt, I might agree. However, there is still the matter of a long-running trend of real wealth (income adjusted for inflation) remaining effectively flat. That is unprecedented.

@john65pennington Given the increased demand for instant gratification in a world where everything is available at the click of a mouse, you might be right.

I’ve heard “The Last Generation”, though that seems like a bit of an exaggeration of commentary on the converging problems of peak resources of various types.

@kalambmitty I see you’re new to Fluther. I’m a newbie myself and really enjoying it. Welcome and thanks for the interesting question.

How about Pod People after the Apple product?

Should be called i2kAH (AppleHeads.)

iGeneration.
jk
But yes, my generation is most frequently called Generation Z.

@bostonbeliever Does that mean that your kids will be generation α? Yes, Greek alphabet.